THE LION COUNTRY 



enemies, iguanas and snakes not disdaining them. 

 A good number of birds-of-prey, marabouts, the 

 Ardea bubulcus, and other varieties of egrets wage 

 desperate war on them. Fish feed on them when the 

 rivers are in flood. I have also been told by the natives, 

 and have proved it myself, that crocodiles eat young 

 locusts. In the night they come out of the water 

 and pick up the locusts lying in heaps on the grass. 

 All those I killed at this time had pellets of locusts in 

 their stomachs weighing from six to nine pounds. I 

 must also mention the Kafirs as being among the 

 deadliest foes of these insects, for they are very fond 

 of eating them as hors d'ceuvres. 



We remained eleven days in camp by the M'sicatzi. 

 I shot a lioness there on October 12th, and on the 16th 

 wounded a big Hon with a black mane, which fell a 

 prey to vultures. I was only able to save the skull 

 and claws. On the same day I brought down a 

 superb maneless female, measuring 10 feet 1 inch, of 

 which I sent the skin to the Museum. In this con- 

 nection I must mention that I have killed in the same 

 place, lions both with tawny and with black manes, 

 and one maneless one. Agreeing with the statements 

 of many sportsmen who are authorities on this subject, 

 I believe there is only one species of lion, of which the 

 thickness and colour of the mane varies according 

 to its surroundings and the altitude at which it is 

 found. 



By the time we left the game had emigrated from 



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